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Auth0 Authentication Provider

info

This documentation is written for the new backend system which is the default since Backstage version 1.24. If you are still on the old backend system, you may want to read its own article instead, and consider migrating!

The Backstage core-plugin-api package comes with an Auth0 authentication provider that can authenticate users using OAuth.

Create an Auth0 Application​

  1. Log in to the Auth0 dashboard
  2. Navigate to Applications
  3. Create an Application
    • Name: Backstage (or your custom app name)
    • Application type: Single Page Web Application
  4. Click on the Settings tab
  5. Add under Application URIs > Allowed Callback URLs: http://localhost:7007/api/auth/auth0/handler/frame
  6. Click Save Changes

Configuration​

The provider configuration can then be added to your app-config.yaml under the root auth configuration:

auth:
  environment: development
  providers:
    auth0:
      development:
        clientId: ${AUTH_AUTH0_CLIENT_ID}
        clientSecret: ${AUTH_AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET}
        domain: ${AUTH_AUTH0_DOMAIN_ID}
        audience: ${AUTH_AUTH0_AUDIENCE}
        connection: ${AUTH_AUTH0_CONNECTION}
        connectionScope: ${AUTH_AUTH0_CONNECTION_SCOPE}
  session:
    secret: ${AUTH_SESSION_SECRET}

The Auth0 provider is a structure with these configuration keys:

  • clientId: The Application client ID, found on the Auth0 Application page
  • clientSecret: The Application client secret, found on the Auth0 Application page
  • domain: The Application domain, found on the Auth0 Application page

It additionally relies on the following configuration to function:

  • session.secret: The session secret is a key used for signing and/or encrypting cookies set by the application to maintain session state. In this case, 'your session secret' should be replaced with a long, complex, and unique string that only your application knows.

Auth0 requires a session, so you need to give the session a secret key.

Optional​

  • audience: The intended recipients of the token
  • connection: Social identity provider name. To check the available social connections, please visit Auth0 Social Connections.
  • connectionScope: Additional scopes in the interactive token request. It should always be used in combination with the connection parameter

Resolvers​

This provider includes several resolvers out of the box that you can use:

  • emailMatchingUserEntityProfileEmail: Matches the email address from the auth provider with the User entity that has a matching spec.profile.email. If no match is found it will throw a NotFoundError.
  • emailLocalPartMatchingUserEntityName: Matches the local part of the email address from the auth provider with the User entity that has a matching name. If no match is found it will throw a NotFoundError.
Note

The resolvers will be tried in order, but will only be skipped if they throw a NotFoundError.

If these resolvers do not fit your needs you can build a custom resolver, this is covered in the Building Custom Resolvers section of the Sign-in Identities and Resolvers documentation.

Backend Installation​

To add the provider to the backend we will first need to install the package by running this command:

from your Backstage root directory
yarn --cwd packages/backend add @backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-auth0-provider

Then we will need to add this line:

packages/backend/src/index.ts
import { createBackend } from '@backstage/backend-defaults';
//...
backend.add(import('@backstage/plugin-auth-backend'));
backend.add(import('@backstage/plugin-auth-backend-module-auth0-provider'));
//...

Adding the provider to the Backstage frontend​

To add the provider to the frontend, add the auth0AuthApi reference and SignInPage component as shown in Adding the provider to the sign-in page.